Physical hazards, musculoskeletal pain, and job control: Multilevel results from the European Social Survey

Abstract

Controlling for physical demands may not be possible for some employees or in some occupations. The current study aims to examine the moderating role of job control in the relationship between physical demands and musculoskeletal pain at the individual and occupational levels. This study uses the employee sub-sample of the European Social Survey (7th cycle). The survey is answered by nationally representative samples across 19 countries in Europe. The sub-sample contains 20,973 employed individuals (50.7% male) across 537 occupational groups. Individual employees are nested within occupations. The results of the multilevel moderation analysis show that at the individual level, physical demands are positively associated with musculoskeletal pain. However, at the high degrees of job control, this relationship became weaker. At the occupational level, there is only a significant direct relationship between demands and pain. As the number of physical demands increases, employees experience pain at more sites in their bodies.